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So the family and I may finally break on through and get a flat screen...and with it upgrade to a blu-ray player.

My biggest request is to go with something internet/streaming ready. My question is: do we need to go full on "Smart TV" or is just getting the internet connected Blu-Ray sufficient (for netflix, Amazon streaming, etc). The cost differential on the TVs seems way high, but for Blu-Ray players it looks to be a fairly common feature...

The less "crap" you have on your TV, the less that can go wrong.

I am not a good choice for that decision. I want a fairly plain TV with a cheap home theater pc attached.

Spend more on a bigger/better TV without internet, and get a cheap bluray that supports the internet.

The TV will be around for years (how long have you kept your previous TV?) and any sort of intelligence it has will be worthless in a very short time.

The bluray player will probably last a few years, and you'll eventually replace it.

You might consider getting a 3D ready TV, although that's still pretty new and the glasses are expensive.

I'd second the 'not going with intelligence' route until something becomes an industry standard.

Last summer, I got a 50" 720p Panasonic Viera for $600 (I believe this was it: http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-VIE...SBHK/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1323447952&sr=8-4 ), and outfitted it with a kick-ass speaker system and used my PS3 as a Bluray player. I regret nothing.

I also have some q's and hope you don't mind me hijacking your thread.

My wife and I are also planning on leaving the stone age of CRTs. Our microwave and TV are both hand-me-downs from folks that bought new stuff. I feel weird about buying something new, when what I have works.

Anyhow, are t.v.'s able to play media from external HDs? I've backed up nearly all of our DVDs on an ext-HD.

Also, if you hook up a PC to the t.v., will the t.v. show good resolution automatically or do you need to have a decent videocard on the pc? Like a hi-def tv-out card or something?

Is it cheaper/better to just buy a blue-ray internal drive for a pc, and go that route, if you're going to hook up a pc anyway?

Another q: what is the best way to get a fast-booting media pc? I was thinking ubuntu. I don't want to have to wait for the pc to boot everytime I want to watch a movie, but I also don't want a bunch of components either.

Just about any video card can display 1080p. Now if it will run fast enough to not artifact is another story. But really Blu-Ray players do not have awesome video cards anyway.

drawn_inward said:

Another q: what is the best way to get a fast-booting media pc? I was thinking ubuntu. I don't want to have to wait for the pc to boot everytime I want to watch a movie, but I also don't want a bunch of components either.

Click to expand...

Solid state drives would be the way to go, I presume.

I have a smart TV, and quite frankly, if you watch a ton of netflix it may be something to think about. Personally, I've turned my TV into my main monitor as well, so I don't really use the smart functions as they're already on my PC.